Benjamin Harrison and Me
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
Benjamin Harrison is best known as the President of the United States who served between the two terms of Grover Cleveland. As the 23rd President, he served from 1889-1893, entering the office without winning the popular vote and then losing his bid for re-election. Harrison is also the only Grandson of a President to hold the office and the Great-Grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the Declaration of Independence. (Harrison’s Dad John Scott Harrison must have felt like a total loser, only serving in the House of Representatives for Ohio!)
Our Spring certainly was short and sweet. We had one week of nice Spring weather, then the rains and storms and tornados came and brought with it the sweltering heat. Our last night of semi-pleasing but very warm weather came on Friday night June 6. This was the night that Jackie and I took Grace to the annual Summer St. Helen’s festival – the kickoff to an exceptionally busy weekend. My favorite activity at functions such as this is people watching, noting the various tattoos, the succession of people who cannot have a good time without a cell phone in their ear, the wild hair, and the skin tight clothing. This is my idea of a good time. 
Karen was a cashier at Kroger when I first met her in November of 1993 as I bagged the groceries that she place on the conveyor belt. She caught my attention immediately, an attractive girl with orange hair and army boots. I found myself ‘cleaning’ the breakroom whenever she was on break so that I could chat with her, and finally we ended up hanging around together outside of work at a party that one of her friends were having. I wouldn’t say that we actually ‘dated’ but we did hang out together for a few weeks. 
Immediately following Ashleigh’s graduation ceremony, Jackie and I headed over to her Mom’s place to pick up Grace and then stop at Kroger to pick up some supplies for a visit to my friend Heidi Maynard - now Heidi Retter – whom I hadn’t seen since our 
Charley Chase is an unjustly forgotten comedy star from the 1930′s who worked at the Hal Roach Studios at the same time that Laurel and Hardy and the Our Gang did. In fact, in their day, they might be considered the ‘big three’ comedy short subject stars. Although it is difficult to find Chase comedies in the mainstream world, videos of his films along with ‘real’ 16mm and Super 8 film have long circulated in the collector world. Chase’s films are among some of my favorites. Sadly, Charley Chase himself died quite young in 1940, but I was especially happy to find that my friend Bob had an address for Mrs. June Hargis, Charley’s second and youngest daughter.